Remote Learning Community Update 4

Week 5

These weekly posts will keep you informed of different activities, share community tips and your photos of the week. Please share your pictures, movies, and home learning experiences with the community by sending us an email.

It is hard to believe that it has already been five weeks of remote learning for our students. For now, ISL is putting together all procedures for the reopening of the campus. Our Reception 3 class started their lessons at school on Monday 27 April, next, Reception 4 to Year 10 students will be allowed back on campus on Monday 11 May, following specific procedures . Lastly, our oldest students will be welcomed back to school in June. The school’s leadership team, teachers, and the admin and support team are working very hard on providing a safe learning environment for all students.

We are very excited to see the ISL campus buzzing with students soon (at a social distance, of course)!

Primary School Highlights

Reception 3 returned to school on Monday 27 April. The teachers did a fantastic job in setting up their classroom to try to encourage as much social distancing as possible. They even made little cutouts of people showing how many could play at that station at one time (see photo below). The parents were happy, the children left with smiles, and it was wonderful to hear them on the campus again.

The primary school music teachers have done a great job in putting together interactive music lessons. Enjoy listening to this Year 5 collaborative and creative music lesson.

Additionally, some primary school students are working on their storytelling skills, some on their French skills, and some others are exploring energy. This week, Ella worked together with her dad on an energy project. She mentioned the following: “My dad had as much fun as me doing this project. Actually, I think he had more fun! Challenges: We had trouble balancing the figure on the diving board. Overcoming the challenge: We taped the diving board down so it would not move. Improving: I could have made it more interesting and longer. How is energy transferred: The energy is transferred using a domino effect – one thing falls and transfers the energy to the next item and then that one falls and it continues until they all fall.”

Secondary School Highlights

Our secondary school students have been busy this week. French Year 9 Phase 2 class students have been working on a novel called “Le voyage de sa vie“. They have enjoyed the variety of activities, especially the ones where they showed their originality and creativity. For chapter 1, the students had to draw their own representation of one of the characters “la femme insecte“, with quotes from the book to match their drawing, see images below. The students had also to select a photo that best represented each chapter and write a caption of 30 words explaining what the photo was and how it was linked to the story. Once completed, the class did some peer assessment, reading through someone else’s slide, and giving them constructive feedback on how they could improve their work.

How do you create drama when working from home? There are lots of plays to watch and the ISL Theatre Club is going strong with a weekly shared production, but working practically is more of a challenge! Year 10 students recently took inspiration from the Push Theatre Company, a physical theatre group based in New York. Following a brief masterclass from the company founder, Darren Stevenson, the students embarked on creating ‘chair choreography’ in lieu of a partner. This resulted in creative, exciting, and dynamic clips as students allowed their imaginations free-reign and storytelling began as you can see in the image below…

Math classes this week have included fun activities. This activity involved students initially guessing about how many of them would fit into the space where they are working, from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Then, they had to measure the dimensions of their room and their own dimensions. Some of the students did not have a ruler or tape measure so they had to be creative and use whatever they thought was reasonable. Some students used shoes, their notebook, a pen, etc, if they did not have a ruler. The initial guesses of how many of themselves would fit into the room were quite varied, as low as 10 and the highest was 2500 of them fitting in their space. Then of course the calculations came. One of the concepts stressed in mathematics is to always ask themselves if their results make sense. Some of the students questioned their results and some did not, the students who questioned their results only made a slight error in their calculations or conversions. Most correct results were between 100 and 600, which seemed to be reasonable.

Community Video of the Week

Do you also miss going to the great music performances in the ISL auditorium? Unfortunately, that’s not possible right now however, luckily, the ISL concert band has created a very nice version of the song, Happy. Enjoy watching this video by our talented Concert Band musicians.

Resources and Recommendations

The section below is dedicated to sharing resources and recommendations within the community. Discover new activities while at home, recommendations from the community, and useful resources.

Activities at home

• Subscribe to the At Home Newsletter from the New York Times. A newsletter full of fun activities for at home from coloring pages to competitive board games, arts activities and much more.
• Become a world famous chef at home, Chef Anne-Sophie Pic has shared her recipes. Find them on her instagram account, and enjoy cooking!
• Explore local online exhibitions – the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Recommendations from the community

The ISL PTA Facebook closed group is a great place to share your ideas and recommendations with others. Members of the ISL community have been sharing all kind of tips with each other from book swaps to possible vegetable box orders. Find this week’s greatest tips below:

• An application for your small children to enjoy learning how to read.
• Looking for new English books? A book delivery (by bike) in Lausanne, have a look here.
• For items for sale, recommendations, good articles and much more – join the Facebook group.

Website Resources: Where to find what?

Three pages on the website aim to share what we are currently doing, and to help you through these challenging times. The ISL’s response to the coronavirus page groups together key information. There you will also be able to find the new policies and procedures created by the school’s leadership for the transition from remote learning back to on campus learning. The Remote Learning page describes how we are structuring our learning environment and lastly, the Life at home with kids page gives you fun tips and advice for activities at home, working from home, and much more.

Please share!

We would love to receive some of your remote learning photos, videos, tips, resources or recommendations. Please send them here.